Orange Pays Out Dividends to Shareholders in Excess of Profits

The telecommunications corporation said it had “reached all of its 2014 objectives” when it presented its balance for the year.

It said this whereas totals sales fell by 2.5% to 39.445 billion euros, with a net income of 1.225 billion euros, a drop of 908 million euros compared with 2013. Only the Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) remains more or less stable at 12.190 billion euros.

These results were achieved at the cost of jobs. The CGT warns of “the shedding of the equivalent of 3,509 full-time jobs in France. Between 2012 and 2018, the equivalent of 25,887 full-time jobs, i.e. one-quarter of the staff, are to go, which is unheard-of!”

Simultaneously, dividends continue to stuff the pockets of the shareholders, to the tune of 60 eurocents a share in 2014. This is too much for the CFE-CGC trade union confederation, which regrets that the company is going to “pay out nearly twice its net profit in dividends,” i.e. 1.6 billion euros.